Quote:
Originally Posted by 19Yzerman19
You have massively misdiagnosed this. The reason it's not big in North America is that the best football in the world is played elsewhere. Unless you want to watch games at odd times, and have access to specialized channels, you won't see it. Only lately has it become a bit more accessible, and popularity is I believe the fastest-growing among all sports in North America. As the MLS improves as a league, popularity will continue to increase, leading to more exposure (i.e. easier to find on TV), leading to increased popularity. Give it a couple of decades, technology is really driving the sport's popularity.
When the rules are called properly the players ARE determining the outcome. A referee refusing to enforce them is interfering in that outcome. You basically want a storyline finish that accords with you expectations in spite of what's fair? Go watch a Disney movie.
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The first part isn't entire accurate. The NBA is massive overseas (even saw a Durant jersey in the crowd today), particularly in Asia where time difference is most extreme. The NBA has done a good job of marketing it's stars so it can be done. Baseball is huge in Japan as well and obviously hockey in Europe.
I think one thing that could help soccer would have a better chance of being popular here if there were a superleague (and not Champions League, a full time league) with the majority of the best players in the world. The other thing would be more athletes from here being the elite of the elite, but that's not gonna happen for a while, maybe ever, because our best athletes choose to play football and hockey and baseball and basketball first, and I don't see that changing for many, many years.
The second part is why the NHL Playoffs are what they are though. You talk about "the other things" (I'll assume them to be emotion, grit, heart, toughness etc...) that are great but that the playoff calls (i.e non-calls) don't ruin much. But if the game isn't called the playoffs way, the other things aren't as prevelant. Like if the call today had gone the other way and it was no penalty, would there be a massive uproar? Only from Greece fans. Not many would have complained about that.